Just a Mess

How green, or ecological, or sustainable, or earth-friendly are idling cars being held immobile on city streets? It doesn't really matter whether they're blocked by Hummers or bicycles. Fumes for a good cause are still fumes.

None of the reviewers here who come out in favor of Critical Mass sound like inconsiderate people, so it's a little surprising that they don't seem to have factored in the more unsavory aspects.

First of all, those (surprisingly few?) drivers who "exhibited bad behavior" upon finding themselves volunteered for a traffic jam of someone else's making. It's great to think that participants feel "liberated", but why should people who are using public roads trying to get somewhere pay a price? I know that I don't want to. How would all those happy riders feel if someone decided that making them late to work would be a good time? Is it all right if it's done on pogo-sticks?

Then there's that helpful police presence, conducting traffic, calming those stupidly irate drivers. News flash here - San Francisco residents don't pay cops so they can supervise joyrides. Uniformed police have better things to do, and they'd be doing it, if they weren't needed on the streets to prevent the city-wide gridlock that used to occur when Critical Mass came out.

The idea that Critical Mass encourages bicycling strikes me as flat-out silly. Not only does it create waves of bad will, it makes it that much harder for anyone to support bicycling. Bike lanes, awareness campaigns, anything that helps is going to take public money and a committment on the part of public officials. Not many of them want to come down on the side of a cause that exists to disrupt.

Last weekend I listened to my sister teach her son that it's not all right to have fun when it hurts other people. He loves to throw oatmeal at breakfast, but no one else at the table is amused. At 21 months he hasn't picked up on this yet - what's your excuse?

keywords: bicycling

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